Identifier: ridpathshistoryo01ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men ..
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history Ethnology
Publisher: New York, Merrill & Baker
Contributing Library: Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston University

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Grseci > -Italic divergence from a stock which wecall Aryan, and history begins to babbleof Dorians, ^Eolians, and Ionians; fur-ther on, in clearer language, of Spartans,Athenians, and Macedonians. What isit all but the evolution of the historicallife of peoples under the one common MANNER OF THE BEGINNING.—EVOLUTION APPLIED. 247 law which pervades alike the world ofmatter and the world of consciousnessand reason? Look at the environment. After theriver valley the peninsula is more favor-Pemnsuia sue- able, as the scene of histor-S£2K2t ical evolution, than is thetat of man. island or the continent. It has the advantages of soil and stream in the projecting- parts of Western Eu-rope. Britain itself is as much peninsu-lar as insular. Denmark is a peninsula ;so also Sweden and Norway. AforetimeIndian civilization was developed in thepeninsula between the bay of Bengaland the Arabian sea. Environment aidsthe diverging forces of the human racein the struggle for existence. The peo-
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PROGRESS FROM INSTINCT TO RKASO.V.—The First Potters.—Drawn by Emile Bayard. and forest growth and the proximity ofthe sea. Generally the peninsula is fa-vored in mineral deposits. When tribesdrift into such a locality they begin tollourish, grow strong. Further on theymultiply and conquer. Society becomesorganic. Law exists. Government isinstituted. One such locality is Greece ;another is Italy; another is the Iberianpeninsula. The Celtic life develops best pies thus promoted rise to historical im-portance, and the rest fail through im-potency of ethnic energy or by conquestof the stronger. To pursue the subject along the lines Of its multifarious SUggeS- Thought itself tions would be to fill a vol- ?%£££?»ume with illustrations of process.the one prevailing law. Human thoughtitself is an exemplification of the evolu- 248 GREAT RACES OE MANKIND. tionary principle at work among- thevery highest forces of organic life. Thisis not to say that thought is the productof material en

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